Bowen plays down 1,500th broadcast

By MIKE GANTER -- Toronto Sun
Eighteen seasons. Fifteen hundred games. Holy Mackinaw, indeed.

Joe Bowen hardly can believe it himself, but the voice of the Maple Leafs hits the 1,500 mark with the telecast tonight of the game between the Leafs and the St. Louis Blues.

Bowen, perhaps because he has no intention of stepping aside any time soon, isn't treating the milestone game as anything special -- big, round number or not.

"I dearly love what I'm doing," said Bowen who handles midweek Leafs telecasts and broadcasts weekend games on radio station Talk 640. "It's the greatest job in the world and I pinch myself regularly to make sure I know it is that. I tried working once at the 5,000-foot level at Inco and I didn't like that very much. I'd like to do this as long as I can. It's too much fun to give up."

Over his 18 years as a Leafs play-by-play man, Bowen has gone through a number of partners in the booth, beginning with Garry Monahan on his first broadcast at the Chicago Stadium through to his current sidekick, Jim Ralph.

Others included former Leafs assistant coach Doug McKay, former players Vic Hadfield and Brad Selwood, onetime Leafs general manager Gord Stellick, and future Leafs assistant to the president Bill Watters. On the television side, he has also been paired with the likes of Scotty Bowman, Jim Peplinski and Harry Neale.

Game No. 1,500 will come at the Air Canada Centre, a building Bowen believes is the best in the NHL for his work purposes.

"I dearly loved the Gardens ... but this place is state of the art," he said. "They've obviously learned from the mistakes of the other buildings in the league.

It's a safe bet that at some point during tonight's game which Bowen will be calling for TSN with Neale, his signature call "Holy Mackinaw" will be heard at least once.

"It's funny," Bowen said. "My dad used to say that. I guess (the Hamilton Tiger-Cats cheer) is where he got it from, but I don't know. He wasn't a Ticats fan and neither am I. But he would say that every once in a while and one night I was doing a game with Bill Watters and something spectacular happened and that blurted out of my mouth. I used it again a couple of times and then all of a sudden it became a little bit of a signature."

Bowen though says he'll do nothing to mark the occasion of his 1,500th game.

"It's just a number that is passing by," he said. "I'll just enjoy that it has lasted as long as it has and enjoy every minute of it."

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